Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a three part pancocojams series on the phrase "hay foot straw foot".
This post provides information about the origin and meaning of the phrase "hay foot straw foot" as it pertains to marching cadences.
For city folk like me, this post also includes a YouTube video entitled "the DIFFERENCES between straw and hay".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/03/examples-of-military-cadences-with.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post presents some examples of marching cadences that include the phrase "hay foot straw foot".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/03/duke-ellington-his-orchestra-with.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube sound file of the 1942 Jazz song "Hayfoot Strawfoot" performed by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra and sung by Ivie Anderson. The lyrics to that song are included in that post along with information about Duke Ellington and singer Ivie Anderson. That post also quotes an article that lists ten of Duke Ellington's most famous songs.
The content of this post is presented of historical, cultural, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the producer and publisher of this YouTube video.
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DISCLAIMER:
The fact that this subject is presented on this pancocojams blog that focuses on the cultures of Black people throughout the world isn't meant to imply that military cadences with the phrase "hay foot straw foot" originated with or were/are mostly composed by Black people.
This subject is presented on pancocojams as part of an ongoing presentation of information about United States military cadences ("jodies"). This blog's focus on military cadences fits its mission statement because an African American soldier, Army Private Willie Lee Duckworth is credited with composing "Sound Off", the first modern day military. Also, most United States military cadences have been and still are African American origin. Furthermore, most United States military cadences reflect certain African American aesthetic preferences and certain African American performance styles.
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THE REAL ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE PHRASE "HAY FOOT STRAW FOOT"
From languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2415 Hay foot straw foot
June 29, 2010 Filed by Mark Liberman under
Psychology of language
…."There's a historical anecdote associated with this observation.
According to Bruce Catton, Mr. Lincoln's Army, 1951:
"Straw-foot" was the Civil War term for rookie. The idea was that some of the new recruits were of such fantastic greenness that they did not know the left foot from the right and hence could not be taught to keep time propertly or to step off on the left foot as all soldiers should. The drill sergeants, in desperation, had finally realized that these green country lads did at least know hay from straw and so had tied wisps of hay to the left foot and straw to the right foot and marched them off to the chant of "Hay-foot, straw-foot, hay-foot, straw-foot." Hence: straw-foot ~ rookie, especially a dumb rookie.
Unfortunately for Mr. Catton's credibility, the same story is told about American soldiers in the War of American Independence. From Wilbur Fiske Crafts in 1922:
You remember that the young men of the American Revolution who came to Concord and Lexington to the join the Army were many of them so unschooled that they did not know the right foot from the left, and so could not obey the drill-master's "Right –left". The disgusted officers siad, "Send these greenhorns home, for if they cannot keep step they will be of no use as soldiers" But there was one officer there who used his head for something besides a hat rack. […] "These farmer boys do not know right from left, but they do know hay from straw. Tie a little hay on every right foot, and a little straw on every left foot, and send them to the awkward squad to be drilled." "Hay-foot — straw-foot, hay-foot–straw-foot" they drilled, very awkwardly at first, and then more firmly, and at last they marched to victory at Yorktown.
Both Catton and Crafts are trumped by an article on "Irish Step Dancing" in Chambers' Journal of November 1885:
To dance the steps really well, one must be nimble and active. I remember seeing a number of the peasants, who, to try and perfect themselves in their dance, danced on the road near some trees, and constantly held on to some of the low branches, to enable them to jump high and use their feet to advantage. There is a story told of a certain mayor who did not know how to dance; and as there was to be the customary ball on St. Patrick's night at the vice-regal court, at which he was, as is usual, to dance with her Excellency, he hired a private room, and when his shop was closed at night, went there, where a dancing-master met him to teach him his steps, unknown, as he hoped, to any one. Unfortunately, it leaked out, and some people annoyed the poor mayor sorely by standing outside the window and saying: "Right foot, left foot, hay foot, straw foot. Faix, thin, an' Paddy 'tis you as can soon fut the floor." The origin of hay foot, straw foot, was, that when, as is sometimes the case, the right foot or hand was not known from the left, a dancing-master often tied a wisp of hay on one foot and of straw on the other, and thus forcibly impressed the difference.
And in Notes and Queries for Dec. 5, 1857, W.W. (Malta) contributed "A Highlander's Drill by chalking his left foot",
"I shall never forget," says Strang in his Glasgow and its Clubs, "the fun which during my boyhood my companions and myself had in witnessing the daily drilling of the new-caught Highlanders, in the low Green, or the pity we felt for the cruel usage of the poor fellows by the cane-wielding sergeants or corporals who were utting them through their facings. No doubt some of them were stupid enough, and was worse, it was their misfortune to comprehend but indifferently the English word of command, so much that it was found absolutely necessary to chalk their left feet, and instead of crying out when marching, left, right, the common call was caukit foot foremost."
This anecdote reminds me of the manner which long since was adopted by the sergeants of another race, when drilling their raw recruits: it being done by tying straw to the right, and hay to the left foot, and then giving the word of command by straw foot, — hay foot, as the movement of their men might require.
The OED has an entry with citations back to 1851:
hay-foot, straw-foot: with right and left foot alternately (at the word of command). Also as v. In allusion to the alleged use of hay and straw to enable a rustic recruit to distinguish the right foot from the left.
1851 Knickerbocker XXXVIII. 79 At company-training and general-training..it was all ‘hay-foot, straw-foot’ with him. 1887 J. D. BILLINGS Hardtack & Coffee 208 Scores of men..would ‘hay-foot’ every time when they should ‘straw-foot’. 1898 J. MACMANUS Bend of Road 40 Poor fool, he's off, hay foot straw foot, an' small grass grows round his heels till he's there. 1911 R. D. SAUNDERS Col. Todhunter vii. 98 You never got in a thousand miles of one of 'em for all your ‘heppin’ and ‘hay-foot’ and ‘straw-foot’ drillin'. 1911 H. S. HARRISON Queed i. 12 They march like little lambs when I say the word. Hay-foot–straw-foot.
Thus the origin of this practice and the associated phrase is uncertain, but it is certainly before the U.S. Civil War. Whatever the origin, the implication is that in the 19th century and earlier, recruits could not be depended on to interpret "left" and "right" reliably, and various audio-visual aids were used to help them maintain a consistent mapping from words to feet.
Now, I can testify from personal experience that by 1969, draftees into the U.S. Army no longer needed hay, straw, or chalk. At least, drill sergeants attributed our occasional errors in lateral asymmetry to stupidity or inadequate numbers of push-ups, rather than to lack of education.”…
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SHOWCASE YOUTUBE VIDEO - the DIFFERENCES between straw and hay
Live Free, Nov 8, 2018
Straw and hay are often times confused. There’s a big
difference however. Straw is used for animal bedding because it has a lot of
air pockets in it. It’s also used to mulch plants to protect them from the
cold. Straw is also very clean because it is made from The Starkey part of the
oat plant, Or the weed plant. It is considered a very clean another words if
you put it on your plants you’re not gonna get a lot of weeds come up the next
year. Hay is used for animal feed. It is very dance and Wood make terrible
mulch or animal bedding. Very common type of hair is made from alfalfa. Hay is
also about double the cost of straw. So you don’t want to pick up the wrong
bale for the wrong application
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